SEATTLE – Washington had five kickoff times announced Thursday morning for the 2019 season, four of which will air on either ESPN, Fox or FS1.
Both home non-conference games against Eastern Washington (Aug. 31) and Hawaii (Sept. 14) will air on the Pac-12 Network. The Huskies will start the season with a Noon kickoff against the Eagles, with the week three matchup against Rainbow Warriors slated for 4:30 p.m. Pacific.
In between is a potential trap game.
Former UW defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, now in his third season as the head coach at Cal, returns to Husky Stadium for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff week two with the game airing on FS1.
On the road last season Washington lost a crucial conference game to the Golden Bears, which also saw a questionable change at quarterback which directly resulted in the defeat.
The Huskies first trip to Reser Stadium with Jonathan Smith on the opposing sideline, entering his second season as the head coach at Oregon State after serving as Chris Petersen’s offensive coordinator from 2014-17, will be another #Pac-12AfterDark special.
UW-OSU is slated for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff with the Apple Cup starting a bit earlier at 1 p.m., with the Beavers game airing on FS1 and the regular season finale against the Cougars on Fox.
One other game, a Sept. 21 road test against BYU, will air on ESPN but no kickoff time has been announced.
Pac-12 Conference Report:
Thursday was relatively good for the conference as it pertains to improving the balance in start times for football games. It was especially good for the USC.
The Trojans lead the Pac-12 with six national games as the schedule stands now, two more than any other program in the conference. Colorado, Stanford and Washington are tied for the second most with four each.
(Note: each team earned one mark for each national game, including both non-conference and conference matchup's).
Arizona, Arizona State, Cal and UCLA are also tied with three games each. Oregon, Utah and Washington State have a pair to their credit while Oregon State has just one national game, coincidentally against UW.
However, outside of the Reign of Troy returning to the Coliseum and being a national contender again, the next important step for the conference is improving its start times across the board.
With ESPN set to air 15 games featuring at least one Pac-12 program this fall, six more than Fox / FS1 which will have nine, it indicates a positive trend compared to the cupcake ordeal back in 2017.
Of the kickoff times announced, 11 will games start at or after 7 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, the highest among the four time slot brackets. The good news is the conference has five games slated to start at or before 1 p.m. Pacific.
Below is a full breakdown of the four kickoff time slots. Overall, the Pac-12 is still heavily weighted in late start times with 10 combined 7 p.m time slots, five more than any of the other three windows.
The 6 p.m. slot has four games with the 4 p.m to 5 p.m. window combined to also feature four. On the positive side three matchup's earned a 12:30 time slot while two games will kickoff at 1 p.m. Below is a full breakdown.
Last season UW featured in three 12:30 p.m. kickoffs on games that aired on outlets other than the Pac-12 Network. Of the eight total national games the Huskies played in 2018, six started no later than 5:30 p.m. with three kicking off after 7 p.m.
Washington has four national games as the schedule sits with a pair of late night conference matchup's, at home against California and at Oregon State, both of which will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. Pacific.
